Presented by The Library of JTS
October 7 - December 30, 1997
Online selections available indefinitely

In our age of advanced computer technology and instant electronic mail, the
picture postcard is a charming vestige of the past. Originally known as a "postal
card", the postcard was created in 1869. This innovation, which afforded
the opportunity to send mail inexpensively, rapidly became the most common and
reliable method for communicating brief personal messages. Initially both sides
of the card remained blank: the front contained the message, while the back was
used for the address. In 1889 private publishers in Germany began issuing postcards
with attractive pictures printed on the front side. The popularity of these picture
postcards increased steadily and from 1898 until 1918, a period known as the "Golden
Age of the Postcard", countless picture postcards were produced and mailed
throughout the world. Seeking to capitalize on this trend, publishers produced
large sets of picture postcards that featured a seemingly endless variety of subject
matter. These sets were avidly purchased, collected and traded by collectors.

It was within this larger popular context that the Jewish postcards in this
exhibition were produced. European and American Jews participated fully in the
"Postcard Craze". The earliest and largest number of Jewish picture
postcards were created for Rosh Ha-Shanah greetings. The custom of sending
a New Year's message is documented as early as the fourteenth century when the
Maharil, Rabbi Jacob of Moellin (1360?-1427), recommended that during the month
of Elul one should include wishes for a good year in all written correspondence.
This custom spread widely throughout the Ashkenazic world.

The colorful images that adorn these postcards afford a nostalgic view into
a bygone world. Although many of the images were staged, often featuring models
who made multiple appearances in different settings and garb, they faithfully
represented realistic elements of daily life. Contemporary dress, household interiors,
family rituals, religious celebrations and special customs were meticulously recreated
in studios. These postcards supply a panoramic view of Jewish daily life, both
religious and secular, in the period preceding the devastation of European Jewry.

Many other subjects were popular with the Jewish public as well. While the
picture postcards of the non-Jewish world often focused on famous world monuments
and tourist attractions, those produced for Jews frequently displayed Jewish monuments:
synagogues from around the world. Of particular interest were the large and elaborate
temples constructed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries across
Europe and the United States. As many of the European synagogues were destroyed
during the Holocaust, postcards are often the only known visual record of these
majestic buildings.

Another popular subject featured on these cards are "exotic" Jewish
images, which captured the imagination of European Jews. The Orientalist Phenomenon
in European culture translated in Jewish circles into the "discovery"
of remote ethnic Jewish types. Thus many cards were illustrated with photographs
of Jews from Yemen, Bukhara and other of Islamic lands, dressed in their colorful
native garb. The photographers who traveled to countries such as Morocco and Tunisia
visually preserved and recorded the Jewish quarters and the daily life of their
inhabitants. These images were then widely distributed on postcards, providing
European and American Jews with a glimpse into the little-known, remote comers
of the Jewish world.

Jewish postcards supplied the past and present spectator with rare and almost
immediate documentation of important events in the life of the Jewish people:
the early Zionist congresses, the building of new settlements and towns in Eretz
Israel, the emigration from Europe and arrival in the New World. As such, Jewish
picture postcards are a fascinating visual resource for the study of Jewish history.